Tournament Of Darkness
by Songbird56
Summary: In a Ninjago AU, during the Tournament Of Elements, instead of aiding Chen, Clouse takes over the island and sets out to capture the elemental masters, tired of Chen's games. Can the masters defeat a dark threat, or is Ninjago doomed to fall to darkness? (MAJOR SPOILER WARNING) (Rated T for violence)
1. Takeover

Clouse leafed through his spellbook by candlelight, fed up with Chen's games. With the dark magic of a power-sucking staff, they could be ruling Ninjago by now. Instead they were playing games. Children's games.

And he was going to stop it.

Those before him, they had failed… the serpentine, Garmadon, and the Overlord. But he wouldn't.

"Clouse, where are you hiding?" Master Chen's voice echoed through the deserted tunnel Clouse had hidden his work in.

The robed leader of the anacondrai cultists trotted into the dark cave. "What is this? A new plan? Does it have buttons?"

Even Chen wasn't stupid enough to leave the secret of his lair undiscovered for long. His plans would have to be unleashed sooner than expected.

"Not so much buttons as mutiny." Clouse murmured an incomprehensible word under his breath and a portion of the floor started to crumble before Chen's feet.

He took a step back, slightly startled, then his expression darkened to a sneer. "What have you done?"

Clouse's pet snake shot out of the unstable floor and hissed, lunging towards Chen. It was over before it began, and the serpent recoiled, slithering to curl up next to Clouse.

Yes, things had certainly changed.

* * *

"Where's Chen?" Jay asked at breakfast.

"Why are you dressed in a bathrobe?" Cole countered, stealing a cookie from Jay's plate.

Jay glared at him. "Ex _cuse_ me, today is my day off!"

"Yeah, because your competitor got himself eliminated!"

Lloyd sighed. "Guys, fighting is not gonna help anyone! We need to find Zane!"

Suddenly, the speakers sputtered to life. "There have been a few… changes in management." It sounded like Clouse.

Garmadon frowned. "Chen runs his own show. Why is he letting Clouse take over?"

The announcement continued. "I now run the island. Guards, you may capture them now."

The guards lunged towards the masters, and Jay cried out in surprise as one seized him just to be pushed away by a ball of green energy.

"Dad, what in Ninjago is going on?" Lloyd asked, putting up an unsteady shield around them.

"That's just it," Garmadon responded, "We're not on Ninjago. Or Chen's island."

"What does that mean?" Cole asked, leaping to his feet.

"I believe that Chen's island has become Clouse's island now."

* * *

 **Taadaa! Chapter 1 is complete! Things will sure be different now. Chapter 2 is coming VERY soon, I promise!**

 **If you have ideas on what should happen, I'm happy to hear your input! I only have a VERY, VERY basic idea of how this is going to go.**

 **Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!**


	2. Warning

Pure terror.

That was what she felt.

What had happened to Chen?

What would happen to her?

Nothing good.

But he trusted her.

He still would.

Should.

Could.

If she was lucky, she might survive.

After all, Clouse might say she had still done her job well. Had impressed him. Was worth saving.

But in the storm of warriors, elemental and not, it was hard to latch on to a thread of hope.

Especially knowing that with her job of betrayer, she would betray _him_ as well.

* * *

Lloyd's shield of green energy flickered as another anacondrai cultist slammed his weapon against it. "Be prepared to run!"

Cole grabbed a knife from a table, and the others followed grabbing whatever utensil seemed fit for the situation.

When Lloyd saw they were ready, her released the shield without warning, and all four, plus Garmadon, sprinted for the exit to the kitchen, whacking anything that moved.

Kai slammed the kitchen doors behind him, and Cole grabbed a heavy, decorative table from the side of the room and threw it against the door. "There," he sighed, making sure the barrier was secure, "Now what do we do?"

Suddenly, something small, red-colored, and fast slammed into Garmadon and fell onto the floor. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

"Skylor?" Kai asked.

Sure enough, it was Sky, looking a little nervous. "I heard the announcement and then these guards came into my room and I was late to breakfast but I didn't have time to escape and-"

"Woah, woah, woah, calm down!" Kai told her, helping her up. "You're safe now. You're with us."

"She is?" Jay muttered, crossing his arms.

"She is." Kai told them, turning around to glare at Jay.

Garmadon sighed. "No time to discuss who is coming with us. How are we going to escape?"

Cole thought for a moment, then smiled. "The passageway! In my room!"

Lloyd nodded. "Perfect!"

Garmadon frowned, opening his mouth to speak, and Lloyd told him, "We have five elemental masters and you on our side. We'll be fine."

"Yes. Five." Garmadon said in a way that made Lloyd think he doubted the loyalty of one of them.

"Dad, we're-"

"Let's go before the guards catch up."

For some reason Lloyd got a weird, tingly feeling down his spine that someone was planning to betray them.

But he didn't have time to ponder it before they were already in the passageways, traveling to who-knows-where.

And even after they were surely well away from the battle in the cafeteria, Lloyd couldn't shake the feeling there was a traitor among them.


	3. Master And Servant

**Whew, I finished chapter three! I never crank out stories this fast! Thank you to all my readers for sticking with me so far...especially Skylor Chan, who said something that gave me the idea for this. Thanks again, Sky! Hope you guys enjoy chapter 3! ;D**

* * *

Dark, slightly damp, and extremely cramped tunnels are not a great place to be.

Especially if you're an evil tyrant trying to rule Ninjago and you really wanted to sleep in this morning.

"Where are the ninja?" Clouse demanded to a guard who had arrived outside of his bedroom shortly after the capture of several elemental masters.

The guard looked nervous, shuffling backwards as he spoke. "We captured almost all of the elemental masters, only missing the ninja, Skylor, and Garmadon. A few others also escaped, but alone on the island they won't get far."

"Let's hope not. Lives might rely on it."

"You're sparring them?"

Clouse laughed spinning around to grab his spellbook and turning to a carefully marked page. "Not theirs," He whispered, "Yours."

The guard turned white.

"Order the soldiers to search the whole island. Nobody leaves. Nobody enters."

"What do we do with the captured?"

"Drain their powers, lock them up. I don't care what happens after that as long as they don't escape."

As the guard turned to leave, Clouse added, "Oh, and one more thing…"

"Yes, Clouse?"

"Make sure you don't capture the spy quite yet. She might come in quite handy in the future. Yes, it will certainly be fun to see what happens next."

* * *

The spy was nervous.

Would Clouse pardon her?

Would she be killed? Her powers drained?

She couldn't lose her targets in the dark.

If she did, she certainly wouldn't have much in her future.

* * *

 **I'll try to make chapter 4 longer, OK? Great! Thanks again for reading!**


	4. The Newcomers

**I finally motivated for chapter 4! Just a heads up, I'm gonna introduce you to my OC Raven in this chapter...**

* * *

It was either very late at night or very early in the morning when there was a sound.

Not the steady drip-drip-dripping of water in the long abandoned corridors of the tunnels, not the steady breathing of his friends. But a sound.

And it was getting closer.

"Guys?" Lloyd hissed, quietly getting to his feet. "Hey, guys!"

Cole groaned and rolled over, blinking. 'Whatisitlloydimsleeping?"

"Someone's coming!"

Cole seemed to fully wake up as he heard the news, and his eyes widened. "Wha… wait, what?"

As he spoke, Lloyd saw a light. A lantern in the distant hallway. He gulped in a breath, looking for a way to hide, to escape, anything...and in the dim light, just above him, there it was.

"Up there," Lloyd told Cole, who was shaking Kai awake. "There's a few old rafters. Not many, but if we're lucky, they can support our weight."

* * *

Chamille pushed a strand of purple hair out of her face. Since escaping the anacondrai cultists the day before, she had been wandering the damp stone tunnels under chen's island. _All night._ And the only reason she hadn't kicked Griffon out of the pack she was traveling in yet was because Raven had already claimed 'alpha.'

"Are we there yet?" Griffon asked from behind her. The master of speed was _infuriating_. Sooo annoying! But alpha thought a large group was better than a small one.

She had _VERY_ mixed feelings on the alpha.

As she moved forwards, though, something bounced off her shoulder.

Not a very large something, mabye a pebble, but that didn't matter. What did matter: _What dislodged it?_

She looked up.

Six elemental masters, all five ninja and the amber one, plus the green master's father.

Easy enough to defeat.

* * *

 **Cliffhanger, because I'm hard to motivate and it's memorial day weekend so I can finish this later… I promise I'll get the next chapter to you ASAP or sooner!**


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